The provision of an effective resuscitation service for people who collapse in a hospital or a medical centre is essential. The passage of time drives all aspects of resuscitation. The final outcomes are determined by the intervals between collapse or onset of the emergency and the delivery of basic and advance interventions. The probability of survival declines sharply with each passing minute of cardiopulmonary compromise. Therefore, response time is critical. A resuscitation team should be able to arrive on the scene of a cardiac arrest within minutes to initiate treatment. The earlier that effective treatment is provided, the more likely the patient is to survive.
The adequate performance of such a service has wide ranging implications with respect to standards of care, risk management and clinical governance. Early resuscitation saves lives.
In one prior art system, when a patient collapses, a first nurse typically shouts for help, then the first nurse checks if the patient is responsive. Meanwhile, a second nurse activates a resuscitation team by shouting into a microphone. The second nurse is typically required to verbally provide the location details to the resuscitation team members. Meanwhile, a third has to push the mobile resuscitation trolley to the collapsed patient's location to commence resuscitation efforts. Unfortunately, this approach is time consuming. Furthermore, if there is a shortage of medical personnel, it is impossible to undertake these actions simultaneously.
In another prior art system, when a patient collapses, a first nurse typically shouts for help, then the first nurse checks if the patient is responsive. Meanwhile, a second nurse has to manually page a resuscitation number or a series of numbers. The second nurse is typically required to manually page the location details to the resuscitation team members. Meanwhile, a third nurse has to push the mobile resuscitation trolley to the collapsed patient's location to commence resuscitation efforts. Again, this approach is time consuming. Furthermore, if there is a shortage of medical personnel, it is impossible to undertake these actions simultaneously.
In yet another prior art system, when a patient collapses, a first nurse typically shouts for help, then the first nurse checks if the patient is responsive. Meanwhile, a second nurse has to manually telephone the hospital operator to trigger a resuscitation alert. The second nurse is typically required to verbally provide the location details to the hospital operator or the resuscitation team members. Meanwhile, a third has to push the mobile resuscitation trolley to the collapsed patient's location to commence resuscitation efforts. This approach is time consuming. Furthermore, if there is a shortage of medical personnel, it is impossible to undertake these actions simultaneously.
The resuscitation trolley typically stores most of the equipment and resuscitation medicines required by a resuscitation team. Each hospital typically uses a standardized trolley. The standard trolley typically has equipment that is standardized throughout the hospital to aid familiarity.
A hospital typically has numerous mobile resuscitation trolleys distributed throughout the hospital and at least one resuscitation team on duty. Although a resuscitation trolley is mobile, it is heavy when fully equipped and is intended only to be pushed over a short distance, typically a few meters. Therefore, each resuscitation trolley serves a small area of the hospital. For example, a hospital ward accomodating ten to twenty patient beds will typically have one mobile resuscitation trolley assigned to the ward. This trolley is usually parked near the ward's nurses' station. The resuscitation trolley can be pushed to the patient's bedside when required. In the event of a resuscitation emergency, the medical personnel is required to push the mobile resuscitation trolley a short distance to the patient's bedside.
A resuscitation team comprises specially trained doctors and nurses who are typically assigned to resuscitation duties for a duty period. The members of the resuscitation team would typically carry a dedicated code pager or mobile phone by which they are activated. During this duty period, the resuscitation team members would normally be expected to continue with their usual clinical responsibilities pending activation.
Each resuscitation team member has a role, and must function as part of the resuscitation team. If activated, and a resuscitation team member is unable to response immediately for whatever reason, the resuscitation team member will have to notify a medical personnel. The medical personnel will then follow a written protocol and manually proceed to activate another suitably trained alternate resuscitation team member. During a resuscitation event, lack of awareness as to whether everyone in the team has arrived at the resuscitation location often results in unnecessary repeated paging or contacting by nurses. Not only is this undesirable because it wastes time and effort sorely needed elsewhere, but it furthermore exposes the resuscitation team members to unnecessary distraction as pagers and mobile phones are unnecessarily activated again and again. Loss of life may result merely because of poor information. As hospitals increase in size and serve thousands of patients, the potential chaos that can result from continuing to manually telephone or to manually page to activate a resuscitation team is apparent.
In a resuscitation emergency, there is a need to mobilize the resuscitation team and to push the resuscitation trolley to the patient's location as soon as possible. Current methods of manually telephoning a hospital operator or manually paging a resuscitation team consumes valuable time in resuscitation emergencies. Therefore, a need exists for a new system, device and method for mobilizing a resuscitation team.